Charlestown 4 lakes 2
Weston 2.1 over Southy, Southy played 35 minutes with 10 men, weston scored winner with 5 to go, was 1 all at the send off
jaffas 2-1 over olympic, another week another win, newcastle's galacticos march on ^_^
Went out to watch the Olympic fixtures yesterday.
There's been a lot of talk on this forum of late about the style of Football in the NBN State League and of Olympic in particular.
I must say congratulations to the Olympic commitee on providing a fantastic surface for the players to play on, it's just a shame that it barley gets used. With such a nice surface it was very sad to see the amount of time the ball spent in the air and the amount of times the ball was punted from back to front to a 50/50 areial challenge across all grades.
Now I realise that there is no single right or wrong style, however it was most dissapointing for me to watch the two Olympic lower grades clearly being taught this style of Football. In a results based environment, this style can be very effective, however for me, it does young players development no good at all to be coached this way. It simply does not challenge the players enough technically and tactically to become the best player that they can be, and doesn't provide the players with enough decision making opportunities to properly prepare them to play at the higher level.
The goals of the local clubs should be to produce players for Australia, Newcastle Jets then your own Club. This is how success should be measured not by results alone.
Does anyone have any theory's on why the standard of football has dropped over the last 5-6yrs ?
Only my opinion but the big push to put forward some younger players that are just not quite ready, and throwing some of the older experienced players on the scrap heap. These older players would be great mentors to the ones coming through. Many a good player lost from the game because of age restrictions on comps. And the fear of relegation so its better to pay ugly and win. Once again only my opinion.
BP, I have thought about this a bit. I played State League late 80's early 90's. At that time we had guys coming back from National League like John Macquarie, Howard Tredinick, Halpin, Lowey etc. A bit after this period Edgeworth and others brought quite a few guys back from the Breakers and made the league quite strong. Nowadays, it is less likely anyone who has played A League would come back to the State League.
If you're at the back end of you career in the A League you are a good chance of a last pay day in Asia somewhere.
I know Lakes have a few former A League players, but outside of that it looks thin on the ground.
Playing with and against players who had played in the old NSL definitely brought an extra edge to your game and improved all around them.
Maybe this is a part of it ?
Yeah very good observation. I think other problem is that prior to the inception of the A-League, there was a very good youth system set up with the newcastle breakers and newcastle united, where if the players didnt make the youth team or 1st grade they filtered back into the state league. Also there were a number of good coaches in the youth system i.e. brett cowburn, lowey, graeme swan, boogs, chris miner geoff finch and im sure there is a few ive missed. Hopefully in the next 3-5 yrs with the new youth set up we'll see a big jump in the standard of football in newcastle.
I think both of you guys have it spot on. It is a combination of both which had lead to slight decrease in quality (my opinion).
As bad as it is to say something like i am about to, the truth is it will happen.
The youth jets not even half of them will make it to the next level, unfortunately. That being said with the jets playing in the state league you have to think a good percentage that dont make it will filter into regular state league teams overall boosting the quality. This generation in the state league you would have to think will be one of significant improvement in playing quality (my opinion again).
any where from 3 to 5 (maybe more) youth players will come back to the state league every year roughly you would think, and i hope it does in a way (again i wish it wasnt truth for the young boys). This mean we could have around 25 additional quality players rotating in the state league in just 5 years. That is a major bonus for the league and development of the game is this region.
I think things are looking alright for the State league in terms of the future.
I believe within certain clubs the quality of football has improved. Edgeworth and South Cardiff particularly have improved with the "style" played. Broadmeadow havent played as pretty since McGuinness left, but still at times play football that is easy on the eye. The introduction the the Jets has probably taken away from the lower grades as players are now being taken away from State League clubs to play for the Jets. 3 or 4 years ago the players at the Jets would be at State League clubs which kept the standard at a reasonable level. Im not sure what the standard is in the younger groups now as I dont often catch their games. Have heard only a few teams try and play though which is disappointing. It is unfortunate Olympic play the way they do - be interesting to watch a session of theirs.
As opposed to now where they would be staying with the Jets and playing in the U23's comp??
I am absolutely baffled as to why Ben Kennedy after playing **** all Football last season isn't playing NBN to get some games in him. You could even argue the case that some of the Jets HAL Squad Kanta Bridges Pepper should be playing at least 6-10 games in the NBN this winter to get some games under their belt.
Matter of fact I don't understand why GVE doesn't once we get into Pre Season send all his players out to play 2-3 games in the NBN in serious affairs to get some form and games under your belt. Playing 45 mins of a pre season kick about is only gonna achieve so much
Send say Goody and birraz to Weston Zads and Taggz to Lambton Taylor and Brillante to Southy etc etc. Would be a boost for the clubs getting a couple of Jets to play for them and get some bums down there to watch and would hopefully see closer ties between the NBN and Jets